Ms. Hardin's First Grade

"There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. " - Winnie The Pooh

About Me

I could not be more thrilled to be your student’s 1st grade teacher for this School Year! This will be my 16th year teaching and I am ready to make it the best one yet! I am excited to learn and grow with my students. I know that with hard work and kindness, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to! Here's a little bit about me. I grew up in Salisbury, NC, the cutest small town there ever was! I was the oldest of 7 kids, so life was never boring! I enjoy traveling, digital art design, reading and all things Disney! I graduated from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte with my ELED degree in 2009. I went back to teach for 7 years in my hometown. I have also enjoyed being a counselor at a local summer camp called, Ambassador Camp, for the past 19 years. 8 years ago, my sister and I decided to make the move to Brunswick County to be closer to camp friends and the community here. I have loved being apart of the VWES Family and am excited to help your kids meet their goals for first Grade!

Contact Info

I am best reached by ClassDojo or email during the day. Check out the link for information on how to join our Class Dojo and follow along with our fun!

First Grade Skills

Below are some of the skills and concepts that a first grade student will typically learn:

Become an independent reader, improve their phonics, phonemic awareness, and comprehension
Grammar skills including capitalization and punctuation
Handwriting skills, writing 5-10 complete sentences.
Math skills such as adding and subtracting single digit or small numbers, greater than and less than concepts, identifying patterns US Coins and shapes
How to make scientific observations and record these in writing, pictures and/or graphs.
Symbols that represent the U.S.
Important figures and events in U.S. history
The difference between living and nonliving things
The importance of the sun in relation to Earth and living things
Forces and Motion
States of Matter

Homework

Nightly Reading: Each night students should spend at least 20 minutes reading aloud from an on level book. Students will bring home a Baggy book and reading log each day to record their reading. They may also read library books or books from home. It is important that they read out loud to an adult. Please encourage them to sound out words they struggle with. Reading logs will be checked weekly. Students will be rewarded with an icecream party at the end of the year for reading 100 or more books!

Sight Word Books: Please check for a blue sight work book in your childs folder. They should practice the words in the book daily, one page at a time. The worlds will be checked off by a teacher when they can fluently read the word.

Spelling: Students will have spelling words each week. Please practice writing the words each day at home to prepare for the test on Friday.

NWF: Nonsense words are fun, made-up words that can help your first grader improve their reading and language skills! They are not real words, so it tests our ability to read unknown words using our knowledge of letter sounds and patterns. By playing with these silly sounds, children learn to decode words, enhance their phonetic awareness, and boost their creativity. Click the blue button below to see our monthly practice pages.

NWF Practice